NUCLEOTIDE-SEQUENCE OF THE CORE REGION OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS IN PAKISTAN AND BANGLADESH AND THE GEOGRAPHIC CHARACTERIZATION OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS IN SOUTH-ASIA

A large number of complete and partial hepatitis C virus (HCV) sequenc es have been reported and classified into several genotypes, although none have been reported from South Asia. We have determined and evalua ted partial sequences in the core region of HCV obtained from patients with chronic hepatitis in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Nucleotide sequenc es from these viruses show significant homology with the Japanese HCV- TR isolate (91.7%-97.9%) and low homology with other Japanese, America n, and UK isolates including HCV-1, HC-J4, HC-J6, HC-J8, and E-b1 (79. 3%-86.2%). The homologies of their deduced amino acids sequence with H CV-1, HC-J4, HC-J6, HC-J8, E-b1, and HCV-TR were 84.3%-89.8%, 85.0-87. 9%, 84.1%-86.9%, 84.3%-87.0%, 90.2%-93.1%, and 89.8%-93.5%, respective ly. These results suggest that our clones might be classified into the same genotype as HCV-TR. Further analysis using molecular evolutionar y methods strongly supported the classification of these sequences wit h the HCV-TR genotype. Moreover, we could not detect any isolates whic h were closely related to our clones or HCV-TR in countries outside th e South Asian area. These data further support the association of HCV genotypes with distinct geographic regions. (C) 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.